How To Design A Smart City
I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out how to escape Ohio that I never considered why I want to leave or what might make me want to stay.
I hear it so often: “Akron, honestly, isn’t that bad.” But I never considered Ohio as an option post-graduation. I was heading to Salt Lake City and if that didn’t work out, the goal was San Francisco, Chicago, D.C., or even somewhere out of the country. Going back to Akron was never an option. Suddenly, that’s where I find myself. What was it that wanted me to leave so badly? When I forced myself to confront the question head on, I realized that I’d created a list of the things that could foster a climate similar to that of SLC or even better, the tech mecca, Silicon Valley. Building a smart city doesn’t require a Masdar level effort or renaming your city to Google; there are some basic things that can be done to increase the quality of life and value of your city with little effort. These things can be done by private companies, government investment, and individuals to make a better place to call home.
Worklife
The first criteria of a great city, for me, are awesome jobs that attract young, like minded people. You can work from home; in a beat up office with snacks on a table; BYOD to a park, because you don’t yet have an office; rent an entire floor and fill it with giant chairs, nerf guns, and pingpong tables; or own an entire building made of glass and metal, with the works. It really doesn’t matter how you do it, because it’s the combination of these things that creates the primordial, startup stew. These startups are adding people and losing people constantly; the fact that this is a relatively short cycle leads to rapid cultural diffusion. Instead of maintaining an insider industry, with stagnant white wigs making decisions on who gets to join the club, you see talent traded all over, forcing these companies to become ever more attractive and edging the slackers up the talent scale or out of the city.
Atmosphere
These talented individuals are going to meet other talent in this talent dense region and form new, awesome companies to attract even more talent. So the second criteria is: great atmosphere. Atmosphere seems pretty vague, but it can be summed up quite simply. Atmosphere includes the venues and events that encourage higher entropy through increasing the likelihood that two talented parties will meet. Universities are a huge hub of innovation merely because a lot of talent is packed into a single place with innumerable opportunities to meet. These precocious individuals meet at concerts, comedy clubs, bars, shared living spaces, meet ups, food spots, religious institutions, conventions, playing ultimate on the field, hanging out in a commons area during breaks between classes, on the quad and so many other places. Smart cities understand that it takes more than just retail environments to grow the economy; growth requires some degree of unpredictability and that can be fostered by simply getting all the talent your city has to offer out and meeting one another.
Variety
That allusion to university life can’t be ignored. The third criteria for a great city is variation of skill. The most unattractive trait for a city, to me, is being known for a single industry. The coal mining city or the hospital city is amazingly dull when trying to sell your city. Sure, it’s a pilgrimage of sorts for those interested in the field, but you vastly limit the opportunity for innovation to occur by making the field so narrow and even reinforce that homogeneity as like-minded people immigrate. Even in terms of Silicon Valley, it’s awesome to be all about tech life, but companies, cities, and nations are made up of so much more than developers and executives. The actual ideas for companies come from unique challenges within different disciplines, and the solutions often come from cross-disciplinary action. You can’t edge out healthcare in favor of manufacturing or culinary in favor of construction. These ideas marry one another and produce wild offspring that keep your city flourishing.
Camaraderie
The fourth major criteria for a flourishing city is camaraderie. There needs to be something amazing that bonds your people together during great times and terrible times. NYC was able to come together during the tragedy of 9/11, but they can also unite over the Yankees, Statue of Liberty, and a variety of other things. As much as you need interesting new disciplines and specialists, you require a great degree of cohesion to pull these things together and make them stay. This is one thing Ohio has in spades! Whether Cleveland is winning or losing, Ohio fans are rooting for their teams. I’m not even a sports fan and I get caught up in the hype. If you focus on building this dense core, your city will attract lots of talent and grow to become amazing in its own right!
Culture
All these work together to form the most important part of any city: culture. The unique culture of every city is what makes it a destination. Protect your artists and do not stifle their creativity. Artists collect the raw emotion of a region and transform it into an experience that transcends state mottos and even sports teams. Often artists are shunned because they draw light to the problems of an area, but these are like the quality assurance techs of your city. If you let the major issues with your city be illustrated by your own citizens, you’ll find that the same brilliant minds you were looking to attract are ready and willing to propose solutions to these problems.
Civic Engagement
While we’re on the topic of facing your problems head on, foster an environment of public debate and governing. When I visited Winter Park, Florida, I saw a gathering in front of the town hall lamenting issues in the city. They each took note of what the others had to say and then exchanged turns on the soapbox. Sometimes, just the opportunity to be heard helps to ease the tension within a community. High political activity ensures that you are continuing to create an area that your talent wants to remain and thrive.
Government Investment
Finally, profit follows. There shouldn’t be empty spaces, especially in your downtown area. If there’s a large lot sitting and waiting for a bidder, consider making it a park or public garden. If there’s a building that’s sat empty for years, consider subsidizing the cost of moving in a business or just turning it into a creative, common space. Not everything has to be an event with even foreseeable profit from taxes. You could throw a giant water balloon fight in a park, or start an ultimate league. Open up your sports teams facilities for club sports to practice when they aren’t in use. You don’t have to wait for the private market to fix your broken city; jolt your city to life with a willingness to create those opportunities at a short term loss.
Homecoming
When I look around Akron, I see so much potential. There’s not much to do as far as entertainment and there aren’t many careers that interest me, but there is new construction, there are empty buildings, and there are a lot of smart people that I have met on campus at The University of Akron. Akron won’t become a Venus Project level city overnight, but with a bit of effort, Akron could be every bit as awesome as the places students dream about living when they graduate.
